French and Indian Wars to the American Revolution, 1754-1775
Themes: 1. France and England fought for 125 years around the world
France and England struggle to control colonies in America
2. England ousts France from America
3. English effort to control colonies more tightly and have them pay the cost of the war leads to the American Revolution
French and Indian War
1.Fought in Ohio Valley and St. Lawrence
-Albany Plan of Union
- Gen. Braddock, G. Washington
2. Battle of Quebec (Wolfe and Montcalm) the turning point
3. 1763 Treaty of Paris – France gives up the continent
Spanish west of Mississippi
England gets Florida and East of Mississippi
4. France wants revenge, so helps the American colonies in the Revolution
Aftermath:
1. England tightens mercantilism, ends salutary neglect
2. King’s Proclamation Line of 1763 closes Ohio Valley to colonists
3. England broke, and wants Americans to share cost of war: taxes imposed
Weakening ties causes:
History of experience with local government, much social mobility distance from England, long
time policy of salutary neglect, religious freedom and Enlightenment ideas
1. Greenville Acts – Sugar Act > Stamp Act Congress
Stamp Act > Boycott, Sons of Liberty
Stamp Act Repeal
2. Townsend Acts (import duties)
Colonial governments paid by England > Boycott Repealed
3. Lord North – Tea tax > Boston Tea Party > Intolerable Acts
4. Intolerable Acts > First Continental Congress
Concord and Lexington > Second Continental Congress Declaration of Independence
American Revolution
- Articles of Confederation
- Declaration of Independence
- Common Sense
- Continental Army
1. Loyalists v. Patriots
2. Bunker Hill
3. Battles of Princeton and Trenton
4. Battle of Saratoga
5. Treaty of Paris (1883)
War of 1812 (Mr. Madison’s War, 2nd American Revolutionb)
- Jay’s Treaty (1794, Washington)
- Impressment
- XYZ Affair, Alien and Sedition Acts (Adams)
- Embargo of 1807 (Jefferson)
- War Hawks (Clay and Calhoun)
- Brits inciting Indians to attack American settlements
- British forts still in US territory
1. Madison declares War against Britain on the side of France
2. 3 attempts to invade Canada fail
3. British burn Washington, DC (1814)
4. Hartford Convention (1814)
5. Treaty of Ghent (1814)
6. Battle of New Orleans , Andrew Jackson (1815)
Aftermath
American System
Transportation Revolution
Era of Good Feeling- Monroe (ended with Panic of 1819)
Federalist party disappears, many of its policies adopted by Democratic Republicans
Mexican War
- Mexico gains ind. From Spain in 1821
- Many Americans settle in TX by 1835 more Americans than Mexicans, Texans revolt against Mexico (Dictator Santa Anna)
- 1836 Alamo falls, Treaty of Velasco (Santa Anna forced to sign by Sam Houston)
- President Polk wants to achieve Manifest Destiny, offers to pay for CA and NM territory- Slidell offers 25 Million, rejected, Gen. Zachary Taylor moves South to disputed territory,
- War is declared, meanwhile CA had declared Bear Flag Republic
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Aftermath
- Debate over what to do with new territory slave or free
- Wilmot Proviso
- Compromise of 1850
Civil War
Themes:
1. Increasingly difficult to compromise the slavery issue
2. Multiple causes – economics, philosophy of government, fanaticism
3. Devastating war for five years 1868-1865
4. North fought to preserve union – added war aim of emancipation
5. Lincoln the dominant figure – assassinated
Leading up to war
1. How to deal with slavery in the new lands from Mexico – Wilmot Proviso, compromise of 1850
2. Douglas reopens Kansas and Nebraska to popular sovereignty
3. “Bleeding Kansas”
4. Increased abolitionist activity – underground railroad, won’t cooperate with Fugitive Slave law
5. Dred Scott decision
6. John Brown’s Raid
7. Different economic interests – no tariff ( South) v. protective tax
8. Lincoln’s election in 1868 as a Republican scares South – they secede
The War
1.Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg
2. Emancipation Proclamation
3. Lincoln has poor generals, but blockade. Finally won with Grant and Sherman.
4. South has Lee and Holds out for a long time – hopes for English aid but doesn’t come
5. Lincoln widens war aim with Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment
6. Ends at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia
7. Devastation – 600,000 died
Aftermath
1. Lincoln assassinated – 1865
2. 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
WWI
1914-18
U.S. involved 1917-1918
1- Pres. Wilson, Neutrality
2- Why: Zimmerman Telegram, Say in peace treaty, neutrality not working
3- Homefront, Schenck v. US
3. Wilson’s 14 Points
4. Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations
WW2
1939-45 (U.S. involvement, 1941-45)
Events leading to War and US Involvement
- Nationalism
- Appeasement, isolationism
- Neutrality Acts
- Cash and Carry, lend-lease
- Stimson Doctrine, US froze Japanese assets in US, US stopped trading with Japan
The War
1.Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
2. Tehran Conference (1943): 2nd front
3. Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945): Free elections in E. Europe, USSR take part in War in Pacific, Germany divided into 4 Military zones
4. Postdam Conference (July 1945): disarm Germany, demand unconditional surrender from Japan or WMD would be used
5. Strategy: free N.Africa, Europe, then Japan
6. War in Europe: land and air, D-Day turning pt, Battle of the Bulge
7. War in Pacific: air and naval, island hopping strategy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
8. Germany surrenders, May 8, 1945
A-bombs dropped, August 6 & 9, 1945, Japan surrenders
Homefront
-FDR issues Executive Order 9066 => Korematsu v. US
1. Propaganda – FDR started out by getting everybody geared up with his Four Freedoms idea (speech, worship, want, fear), and telling people they had to go out and fight for the American Way of Life. To help get the idea around, he established the Office of War Information (1942) to take charge of the matter – Hollywood joined in too, of course (Capra’s Why We Fight).
· Gov’t Regulation of the Economy – As follows:
1 Office of Price Administration (1942): The OPA quickly went to work controlling inflation through price ceilings on commodities and rents, as well as establishing rationing through local War Price & Rationing Boards. Many businesses protested, and blamed the OPA for scarcity, but tough luck for them.
2 War Production Board (1942): Following Pearl Harbor, the WPB was established to convert the economy from civilian to military production.
3 War Manpower Commission (1942): Recruited workers for the factories.
4 Gov’t Incentives in Business: The gov’t guaranteed profits (cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts), lowered taxes, and excluded businesses from antitrust laws. Witness the rise of the dreaded military-industrial complex.
=> Results of the Wartime Economy – As always, unemployment basically vanished, and people started making more than ever. The gov’t didn’t even bother to overtax them, instead relying on deficit financing. Also, industry (and especially agriculture) experienced yet another period of consolidation.
=> Federal Support of Science & Technology – Like business, scientific enterprises all got bigger as the gov’t poured $ into big universities and military/science projects.
=> Growth of Organized Labor – A labor/management conference agreed (after PH) to a no strike/lockout pledge to guarantee war production. The NWLB was then created to oversee any disputes – unions were allowed, but workers couldn’t be forced into them either. It wasn’t all good, though, b/c when the NWLB tried to limit wage increases in 1943, workers struck big time, leading to the War Labor (Smith-Connally) Act (1943), which gave the president authority to seize and operate plants w/strikes if needed for nat’l security, and gave the NWLB the authority to settle disputes for the duration of the war.
F=>Growth of the Federal Gov’t – The gov’t increased both its size and power during the war, esp. the executive branch, which now also had to manage the labor supply and control inflation.
H=>Opportunities for African Americans – Although blacks were able to find jobs in the military and in cities (Executive Order No. 8802 outlawed discrimination in defense industries), they still faced major problems and race riots in the cities (1943). Membership in civil rights organizations increased as a result. => Army desegregated in 1948 by Truman
I =>Opportunities for Women – In addition to being more involved in the actual army/navy action, women took new war production jobs “Rosie the Riveter”
Aftermath: women expected to go leave jobs, baby boom, GI Bill, growth of suburbs
Cold War
1945-1991
NATO, 1st peacetime alliance, collective security
Soviets test A-bomb, 1949
China goes communist, 1949
Korean War, 1950-53
McCarthyism, 1950-54
Vietnam War, 1965-73
Détente, 1972-1979
Fall of Berlin Wall, 1989
Collapse of Soviet Union, 1991